


Bubble Baths

by unknowableroom_archivist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Marauders' Era, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-03-22
Updated: 2006-03-22
Packaged: 2019-01-19 20:13:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12417327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unknowableroom_archivist/pseuds/unknowableroom_archivist
Summary: L/J one-shot fluff involving the prefect's bath, and sorting people away. Read at your leisure, though it might make you crave a bath of your own.





	Bubble Baths

**Author's Note:**

> Note from ChristyCorr, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Unknowable Room](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Unknowable_Room), a Harry Potter archive active from 2005-2016. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project after May 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Unknowable Room collection profile](http://www.archiveofourown.org/collections/unknowableroom).

**A/N:** Hey, all. This is just some fluff I cooked up one day after taking a bath and seeing the Goblet of Fire bath scene. Basically, L/J during their seventh year.

\-- 

There was a prefect bathroom on the third floor that rivaled all other prefect bathrooms in both its beauty and grandeur. With cool, white marble that was stained spots of vibrant color by glass windows, it was easily the crème de la crème of bathrooms as far as bathrooms went. In Hogwarts, one could always expect a line of prefects and friends of prefects who had weeded out the password stretching unofficially down the hallway. There were towels, great, big, fluffy towels that felt more like warm blankets than towels at all. It was a spot where one could get a few moments of peace amid the endless blur of Qudditch games, rolls of parchment and too complicated relationships. 

That was why Lily Evans was there that day, staring lazily at the grey veins in white marble until they were lost in a haze of perfumed steam. She inhaled deeply, feeling her skin prickle with relaxation. The entire room was sultry and warm and it made the hairs on the back of her neck cling with tiny drops of water. With the back of her hand, she wiped her forehead and peeled off her clothes. They didn’t want to leave her warm body and lay in a dejected heap by the towels. Lily was too flushed to fold them and they were too heavy to be folded. Her rosy cheeks nearly burst like ripe fruit when she lowered herself into the water. It was very hot as well.

Lily floated there in the water, drifting among the palest pinks and the most iridescent whites, her red hair fanned around her head like a pillow. The bathtub was large enough for her to dive, swim, jump but all she wanted to do was glide. Not moving, just being still. 

It wasn’t as if she had had a particularly difficult day—or week, even. It was fairly average, as average as things could be in the Wizarding world, she supposed. But that was the problem. She hadn’t been dreaming lately, just sleeping and waking up feeling lost and restless. 

Lily hadn’t bothered to lock the bathroom door, as there was an antechamber before the bathtub where one could smell the perfume and, courteously, leave. She heaved a great sigh, watching water droplets skitter off her chest and into the pool. One ear was kept on the footsteps and deep, even breathing of her intruder out of plain curiosity more than fear. It might be one of the friends she had bestowed the password on coming to check on or even join her. Having lived together for almost seven years now, it was impossible for them not to know each other inside out. It didn’t matter anyway, as the tub was so large. Lily had locked the door when the four of them had snuck in last year and spent the whole night splashing around with a bottle of Firewhiskey. 

However, when the doorknob turned and her intruder walked in, she could very plainly see that it was not Emmeline, Marlene or even Alice. It—or he, rather, was still in full uniform and shifting towards the towels, determinedly staring at the floor.

Suddenly, he looked up and Lily, who had been treading water, took in a great gulp of it. The pretty foam tasted horrible. 

“Potter?” she gargled. “I’m in here.” James winced very openly, and wiped his steamed up glasses on his school jumper. “Er…that’s the point,” he said reluctantly.

“Well what do you mean ‘that’s the point’?” Lily demanded. She gave a nervous laugh, hands and feet were moving back and forth and an alarming rate. “Listen, I don’t know--”

“I just want to talk. With you.” James spoke very slowly and then added, “Marlene said this would the best time.” He gave his own low chuckle that bounced off the marble. Lily was perturbed enough to shoo it away from her ears protectively. “You, er, can’t exactly storm out on me.”

“Yes I can,” she objected, though cursing inwardly as she knew he was right. Lily was a girl who had her standards, none of which involved being naked in front of James Potter. Her stomach began to flip. “Look, I know what you’re going to say. Just—please, don’t.” 

“Why not?” James asked. It was an innocent enough question, but it made Lily bite her lip in frustration. 

“Because, well,” she started. “Because you promised you wouldn’t anymore. And now that I know you better, I don’t want to turn you down again. It’s not fair, Potter. Why can’t you just let it be?” She had really meant to keep the pleading out of her voice. Just when she thought she had him figured out, he had complicated everything again.

It was very quiet, and the only sound was both of their breathing—in and out with the lapping of bathwater. She was so afraid to break the silence.

“You know how it feels when you ride a broom, Evans? That’s what I feel when I’m around you. And I really can’t ignore it anymore,” James said slowly, his lips barely moving. His eyes were staring very directly into hers. It was very difficult to look away. So, she did the only thing she could.

Lily ducked under the water and closed her eyes.

She had filed James away so carefully since he had come to her waving a white flag in an uncharacteristically humble gesture. He had agreed to put away all his feelings for her if she would put away all her dislike for him. She had sorted him as a friend and that was how she saw him. They had started over again and now…now he wanted to go back. Lily broke the surface of the water, taking a deep breath of air and ready to, once and for all, tell James to leave. He seemed as though he had been wondering where she was the entire time. 

“Look, James,” she said, licking her lips. And then she stopped. She had never called him James before. It had been always Potter. Lily rubbed her eyes. “You never give up, do you?”

“Maybe,” James said, sitting up a little straighter.

“I’ll go out with you.”

Lily had been afraid of loosing him as a friend. But when she saw the way that he smiled, she realized it would all be alright. Perhaps he wasn’t meant to be sorted away, after all. 


End file.
